Sarah Lakhani

My Client Success Journey

May 12, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

Before working with a coach, I think it’s helpful to know what their client success journey looks like. This helps you decide whether their roadmap is one that will benefit you and maximize the results you’re looking for in your business.

Introduction to My Client Success Journey

My client success journey consists of 5 phases. Over the past few months, I have found this to be the best way to get results for your business. These 5 phases help solidify your unique proposition, your competitive advantage, your differentiating factors. They also build on each other, culminating in a business that has a solid foundation. We cover every element of your business, from the vision to the customer acquisition strategies. We talk about your business model, your brand strategy, your positioning, your business strategy and we create a roadmap of action items to guide you to your goals.

You’ll notice I use a lot of strategy in my client journey. I whole-heartedly believe that any person in business should spend some time figuring out what is going to work best for them and their business before jumping in. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in taking imperfect action, because I absolutely do. In fact, I’ve pivoted my own business several times. But it’s important to have a plan, to be positioned a certain way, to develop strategies across brand, business and customer experience that work together to reinforce your brand and your business.

Phases within my Client Success Journey

My clients have found my easy-to-follow, step-by-step and practical approach immensely helpful in uncovering opportunities to leverage and identifying areas to improve within their businesses. And so I’d like to share my Client Success Journey with you today.

My Client Success Journey

Vision, Mindset
Business Model
Brand Strategy
Business Strategy & Roadmap
Customer Strategy

Phase 1: Vision and Mindset

When we start working together, I encourage you to spend some time understanding your future vision that you have for yourself. It’s important for your to have an idea of where you want to go and be really clear on what that looks like. The more clear your vision is, the easier it’s going to be for you to get there. Your future vision can be broken down into a long-term (e.g. 10 year) vision and a short-term (e.g. 1 year) vision. That’s what I find works well for my clients, as well as for myself.

Your vision and your mindset are closely related. When you can picture your vision, and you spend some time every day, whether by working with me, or working on the activities and exercise we would have talked about, you reinforce your direction towards that goal.

There is some magic that happens when you have someone in your corner, reminding you every day that you have this vision that you are going to accomplish, and that you absolutely can accomplish. Whether you believe in mindset or not, and whether you work on your mindset regularly, having someone motivating you along your journey is a game-changer. Often, I find that when people work alone, without a business coach or a business partner, they lose sight of their vision. Their days become filled with their day-to-day tasks, and they lose the momentum and the ability to take leaps and bounds towards their ultimate goal. It is so easy to get bogged down in your daily tasks, and to forget about your ultimate destination. The unfortunate thing about this happening is that it becomes increasingly difficult to get to your destination when your mindset isn’t in the right place.

Phase 2: Business Model

Once we have the vision and the mindset in place (the mindset work is continuous, and carries on throughout our engagement), we focus on developing your most aligned business model. When it comes to business models, the possibilities are infinite. At this point, it is most important to design your business in a way that suits you, your vision, your dream lifestyle, your strengths and your skills.

We use this time to hone in on the ideal customer for your business, and we develop an irresistible product or service offer that really and truly solves their problem or gives them the desired outcome they are looking for. We also take the time here to make sure the delivery mechanism is optimized for your strengths and delivers a great experience to their clients. And lastly we make sure to explore different profit models and choose the one that aligns to your vision.

Phase 3: Brand Strategy

Once we have the vision, mindset and business model in place, we can begin working on the brand strategy. In this phase, we start putting together the positioning, and the ultimate look and feel of your business. This is an in-depth exercise involving plenty of research on your ideal customer and your competitive landscape.

At this point we also dive deep into the offer you have in place for your clients, and we optimize it for outcome, effectiveness and positioning. This ensures that you have something in place that will attract your most ideal customers and give them the results they are looking for (and more!).

And lastly, we ensure that all customer-facing platforms such as social media platforms and your website are in line with the brand strategy, both in terms of look and feel we well as content.

Phase 4: Business Strategy

By the time we get to the business strategy phase, you will have so much clarity on your business, covering your business model, your profit model, your brand strategy and positioning, your irresistible offer, and the value you provide your clients.

At this stage, we put the final touches on positioning. We make sure we are clear on the unique and desirable position that you and your business will occupy. If there is anything that needs re-positioning, this is when we identify and make those tweaks.

An extremely helpful part of this phase is getting your roadmap together. This roadmap is broken down into your strategic pillars and outlines all the actions that need to be completed to get you from where you are today to that future vision we had outlined earlier in our engagement. You will find this activity to be extremely useful as it alleviates the stress, anxiety and overwhelm that comes with running your own business. The actions within the roadmap are prioritized so that at any given point, you know exactly what you should be working on, and can focus on that instead of your entire to-do list.

Phase 5: Customer Strategy

In this final phase, we explore all the different ways you can delight your customers. In business, there is nothing more important than keeping your customers coming back for more. And the best way to do that is to ensure you have an incredible customer strategy.

This strategy covers acquisition, in-service, post-service and every existing or potential touch-point that your client does have or could have with your business. I believe that the majority of businesses do not spend enough time on their customer strategy. This is a huge missed opportunity, because your customer experience can make or break your relationship with your customers and your potential customers.

Expected Outcome

Once we go through all 5 phases, and even as we work through them in our time together, the clarity, focus and direction you build up starts creating ripple effect in your business. Your messaging becomes more clear. Your content becomes more consistent. You start understanding who you are serving and why you are uniquely positioned to offer them what they want, need and more.

Your business starts taking a more defined and clear position, which makes it more magnetic to your ideal customers. You will find opportunities to leverage that will help you get to your ultimate goal. And you will find it easier and easier and a lot more exciting to work towards that goal.

And more than that, having someone in your corner, guiding you through your strategic decisions and cheering you on, is absolutely priceless.

I hope this client journey inspires you. If you know someone who would benefit from this, please share!

Brand Strategy: 3 Essential Elements to Help You Stand Out

May 5, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

I absolutely love talking about brand strategy. In addition to your product/service or offer, branding is a powerful differentiator for you and your business and really helps you to stand out. That’s why I’ve packaged up my three essential elements in this article.

When you think about specific businesses, it’s quite common to think of them as “brands”. You likely think of Coca-Cola as a brand, Nike as a brand, and Sephora as a brand. Yes, these are all businesses, but the brands these businesses are or have created are the containers.

So before we dive into what you can do almost immediately to begin building your brand, there is something that is worth giving some thought to.

Do you need to have a “brand”?

This is a question that comes up in entrepreneurial circles and discussions, and it really throws me off. Of course you need a brand! As a service provider, you are very closely connected to your brand. You and your personality are likely mirrored in your brand. After all, when someone choose your business, they are choosing to work with you (or your team, who follow your ethos and way of working).

Brand Element #1: Design

I knew even before I started my business that my visuals would be completely different from other people, resources and businesses that emphasize strategy, management consulting, and anything in that realm. I always knew design would be a big element of my brand strategy.

If you look at all my visuals – my website, my workbooks and guidebooks, my instagram page… you’ll see that I use colors and graphics to make the content more visually appealing. That’s partly because visually appealing things keep people around for longer, giving me a better chance to help them and to start a relationship with them. And it’s also because it’s more “me”. In fact, when people at my previous job saw my website, they said “it’s so you!”. And that’s exactly what you want the design of your brand to surface. It should be a visual representation of who you are.

Brand Element #2: Language and Tonality

A common thing we see here is sounding like others in your industry. It may seem like a good plan – copying the language and tonality of people who are successful in your industry, but it really won’t translate as well.

The reason for that is people can sense authenticity, or in this case, lack of it. The people you follow who use specific language so that because it’s true to them. If you try to use the same language, it’ll likely be uncomfortable, a bit awkward and for anyone who knows what you’re really like, confusing.

So when it comes to mapping out the language and tonality in your brand strategy, you really want to think about what is going to sound like you. One of the best compliments I’ve received about my articles is that they are fun, easy to read and understand, and “like you’re having a conversation with me”. In fact, that part in the quotes was said by more than one person! That was exactly what I was going for.

Just for fun, compare my articles on strategy, business models and positioning to the more traditional sources for this information. You’ll immediately see how our languages and tonalities are different.

I want to point out that almost all strategy and business-resource information is written in this more traditional way. But I still chose to be different. And that’s because I think it can be easier to consume when it’s provided in a more friendly manner. Not to mention, more fun, and definitely more likely to be implemented!

Brand Element #3: Personality

And lastly, we have personality. Personality is a very big part of brand strategy. Similar to what I was saying about language, but taking it up one level, I’ll point out that although the world of strategy is absolutely my interest, I recognize that it is a dry, buttoned-up, corporate-focused world. Most articles on strategy are full of jargon, long and not as captivating as other topics. Most people talking about strategy don’t showcase their fun and easy-going side (do they have a fun and easy-going side?). I’m not saying my way is better. It’s just different. HBR isn’t going to lose customers because of me, and neither is McKinsey. But for the people who are interested in strategy but wish it could be delivered a different way, I’m the person they’re looking for.

You get to see my personality through my workshops, my webinars, my occasional instagram stories and other video-based social media content. When you do that, you instantly get a feel for what my brand is like – because my brand is based on me and my personality.

A brand with two founders

With businesses that have two founders, you’ll have to identify the personality, language, tonality and visuals that you want to use. Ideally, they should be a good mix of the two or more founders. They should absolutely not be so far removed from the founders that they don’t represent them well. Afterwards, a good test to see if you nailed it is to check (separately) that the founders describe the brand in the same way.

So there you have it. Three essential elements to designing your brand strategy. Work through these, make thoughtful and intentional decisions and then begin to implement them. You should find your brand coming together quite quickly after that.

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The Insider’s Guide to the Know, Like and Trust Factors

April 28, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

The number one thing all people in business want is… more customers! And that makes sense, of course. But we should also articulate that we all want to be attracting ideal customers, not just any customer, because your ideal customers are a lot more likely to convert. So, how can you attract more of your ideal customers? It comes down to three things: the Know, Like and Trust factors.

Building your business and brand to include these things will create relationships with your potential customers, and those relationships will eventually lead to sales and loyalty. The time between building the relationship and making a sale will differ from business to business and depends on a number of factors. For example, if your product or service is an essential item, a time-bound purchase (i.e. for customers at a specific phase or point in their lives) or a low-cost purchase, you’ll find the time between relationship-building and sales will be shorter.

The Know Factor

The Know factor is developed through showing up genuinely and consistently. Whatever platform you choose to focus on – whether it’s a social media platform, your website, speaking events, or anything else – the key is to be consistent and genuine.

The “genuine-ness” comes from being clear on your brand personality, tonality, language and visuals and ensuring your unique advantage shines through. (More on this in the Like Factor section). The reason this is important in creating the Know Factor is because in order for someone to feel like they know you, they should be able to describe you, to recognize your content and to expect a certain type of engagement with you.

And all that is rooted in your brand and your unique advantage. When you have those identified and embedded within your content and engagement, your customers will inherently feel like they know you, which creates a bond and a feeling of security.

The security element gives your ideal customer a sense of stability, of knowing what to expect. This is core to developing a deep connection with them – a pre-requisite for a loyal following and long-term sales.

The Like Factor

The Like factor is rooted in connecting with your ideal customer. This factor is based on similarities between you and the person you want to attract. So the key here is to identify your differentiating factors – the things that make your brand and your business unique – and highlighting those regularly in your content.

People tend to like people who are either like them or aspirational to them. And if you can get a bit of both in your brand and business, you’ll be golden!

So in order to develop the Like Factor with your audience so that you can extract your ideal customers from them, you need to showcase your (or your brand’s) personality traits. If you are a service provider, your individual personality will be your brand’s personality. But if you have a partner, then you should develop a brand personality that feels true to the both of you. Similarly, if you have a product business, you can either leverage your personality and inject that into your brand, or you can create a slightly different personality for your brand.

The key here is to know exactly what your brand’s personality is, and to know what makes it stand out. A brand that is just like other brands in the industry won’t stand out. And ultimately if you don’t stand out, you’ll find it very difficult to attract customers that are right for you and your business.

The Trust Factor

The Trust factor arises from your knowledge and your experience. It is built through your audience seeing you as a figure of authority in your area or as an expert in your field. If you are a product-based business, your ability to showcase the quality, history and depth of your brand will play a big part in the Trust factor.

To increase your Trust factor, use testimonials, cast studies and customer feedback. It is recommended that you share these once a week, to keep a steady flow and reminder of your Trust factor.

Pre-planning will make a big difference here. Actively ask customers for their feedback and testimonials. Incorporate this into your customer journey, asking for a testimonial shortly after receiving the product or completing the service you offered. That way, you’ll create a steady stream of testimonials and feedback, and you can develop case studies on a select few customers if that makes sense for your business.

All three factors have one thing in common…

You’ll probably have noticed that all three factors – the Know, Like and Trust factors – have a a common thread running through them.

Your uniqueness. Your competitive advantage. Your unique proposition.

When done right, these will shine through each one of the factors and create a brand and business that stands out. This will then attract the right customers – your ideal customers – to it.

Customers who do not resonate with your unique advantage will not stick around, and that’s a good thing. It means lower costs for you because you won’t be trying to convert customers who likely will never buy from you.

And it means the people who stick around will do so because they resonate with you, your brand and your business. And those are the people you want. They are your ideal customers.

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Using Social Media to Generate Leads

April 14, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

Most entrepreneurs, if asked what they would like in order to achieve the success they desire in their businesses, would say “leads”. And in that space, we usually think of using social media to generate leads. It turns out that the majority of us believe that if we had more eyeballs on our content, we’d be able to convert them, making more sales, more revenue and ultimately achieving our financial goals.

The first thing you’ll want to check, however, is whether you’re already converting your existing leads at a decent rate (3-10%). If you are, then congratulations! You are in the coveted position of going down one of two paths now: Push your conversion rate higher, or look at generating more leads.

If you’re not already converting at a minimum of 3% (leads to purchase), then it’s time to build a lead generation system that works for you. There are 4 main things to focus on, and although you might have heard of some of them, I will be sprinkling my tried and tested methods in there, so these are all based on experience.

Tip #1: Choose 2 platforms

If you absolutely must use more, you can go up to 3, but definitely stop there. The reason you don’t want to be everywhere at once is because growing an audience of your ideal customers requires time and energy. So the more you spread it out, the less you’ll be able to offer each platform. And when that happens, your audience will feel it. You won’t be fully present and you won’t be fully engaging with them. It’s just not possible.

If every social platform requires about 4-6 hours of content creation per week (I, personally, need longer than this), and a minimum of 1 hour of engagement per day, then for 1 platform alone, you’re looking at 11-13 hours of your time per week. 2 platforms is 22-26 hours per week and 3 platforms requires 33-39 hours per week.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that you can scale and repurpose your content, right? And yes, of course you should. But only if it makes sense for the platform. Instagram content and LinkedIn content will likely not be the same at all. But Instagram and Facebook content could be repurposed for each other. And if you were to use Pinterest, you’d likely have to create pins that are a lot more aesthetically powerful than your Instagram posts.

But there’s more to it than that. There’s also the strategy behind the use of the platform, and understanding how to use each one to draw your ideal customers into your world. In the world of Facebook, you might consider a strategy of engaging in Facebook Groups, more than posting on your page. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be posting on your page, but drawing people in will likely require you to go out and engage with people in places such as Facebook Groups. Instagram, on the other hand, is set up in such a way that allows you to draw people in with a strong hashtag strategy. And that leads me to my second point…

Tip #2: Leverage the power behind each platform

Posting is not enough. Every platform has its own special features. Learn what they are, and leverage them. Incorporate them into your content plan. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Instagram: By now, you’ll have heard of reels, and hopefully even posted a reel or two. If not, that’s something that absolutely needs to be a part of your Instagram strategy. Why? Because Instagram is currently pushing reels. That means that Instagram is placing reels in front of its audience (whether they currently follow you or not) a lot more than it is other types of content (e.g. Instagram stories). IGTV is also still going strong, and is possibly second place in the hierarchy of content types on Instagram. What does this mean? If you want to be seen, heard and found, these are the types of content you should be pushing.

Facebook: The most powerful element of Facebook is its Facebook Groups – by far. This community-building feature within Facebook offers its audience a huge selection of like-minded groups where one can surround oneself with people they deeply connect with. What does this mean for you? Find your groups, or create one! I recommend finding a few groups that fall into two distinct categories: Groups that you can learn from (i.e. your peers) and Groups that have your ideal customers in them. For the latter, you’ve got to be considerate of the Group’s rules. You should be able to find some where your services and your ideal customers are both available, but note that some Groups only allow one and not the other. Once you’ve found Groups that contain your ideal customers, engage with them! Help them out as much as you can. Build relationships and trust with them. Don’t try to push your products and services onto them at every chance, but if it’s appropriate, and in a private forum such as DMs or via email, by all means, ask for the sale!

These are just two examples, but LinkedIn also has its features. People connect on LinkedIn a lot more fluidly than on Facebook, for instance. So if you’re building your ideal customer network, and if your ideal customer is present on LinkedIn, it’s a great way to find and connect with them. And then you can begin to build and nurture the relationship with your new network of ideal customers by providing as much value as humanly possible.

Tip #3: Provide value

You’ve heard this one before, I know. But it’s so important to stick to it. Oftentimes, we see people with huge followings and we get discouraged because our numbers are much smaller (I’ve been there too!). But the truth is, everyone starts off the same. We all start with zero followers. We all need to get to 50, then 100, then 200, then 500, 1000, 2000, 5000 and so on. No one gets to 20,000 overnight. So what makes one person get to their first 10,000 while another person struggles to get to 500? Consistency and value.

Let’s talk about value first, and we’ll tackle consistency in the next tip.

What does valuable content mean? Well, this depends on who you’re trying to attract. And this is all part of your content strategy. The more you know your ideal customer, the more easily you’ll be able to identify the content that they will need to see to be attracted to you. And beware of the language you use. If you want to help people, but you’re hoping they will be self-motivated action takers, don’t create content using words such as “unmotivated” or “helpless”.

Think of it this way every time you create a post. Will your ideal customer look at that post and think “that’s me!” or “wow, I was looking for that information”? Or will they move quickly past the post because it didn’t call our to them? You want to make sure you’re speaking to them directly, touching upon the conversations they’re having in their heads. Where are they at? What are they thinking? What do they need help with? What are their frustrations and concerns? Speak to those things, and use the right language to draw them in.

Tip #4: Be consistent

Now that we’ve covered the ins and outs of using social media to generate leads, let’s talk about the last, very important point: being consistent. If there’s one thing social media platforms love, it’s consistency. So once you’ve worked through tips 1, 2 and 3, it’s time to commit. Daily is great, and highly recommended if you can commit to it. But if you can’t, then choose a schedule you can commit to. And don’t make it too easy. Push yourself. You’re here to make a difference, to grow a business, to create the life you dream of. So push yourself to commit to your maximum. And then stick to it. It’s a promise you’re making to yourself and to your ideal customers, so don’t bail.

And once you have your leads?

It doesn’t end there. Think through your customer journey. What happens after they begin to follow you on social media? Is there a next step you’re trying to get them to take? Don’t leave your potential customers hanging. Make sure there is a journey planned that you’ll guide them through. This is a relationship, after all, isn’t it?

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Using Business Model Innovation to Create a Unique Business

April 7, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

If you’re building a business, you need a business model. It’s really that simple. It’s not negotiable, you can’t “sort of” put a business model together. You’re either in or you’re not. And I’m hoping you choose the former. Because a business model is not just necessary, it can literally take your business to completely new levels of success. And when you do that, it’s usually through Business Model Innovation.

What is a business model?

Let’s first get through the basics. What is a business model? The best definition I’ve come across describes a business model as the the logic of the business. It describes how the business operates and how it creates value for its customers.

In other words, a business model describes how your business intends to function.

That means there are a few things that need to be articulated when talking about your business model.

Surprisingly, there isn’t a standard definition of what those things are. Some definitions say you need 3 things and others say you need 9 things as part of your business model. So I’ve put together my own definition which I think is the most useful (I might be biased)!

A business model should cover or answer the following:

Who is your customer?
What are your customer’s needs?
What is your value proposition, and how will it fulfill the customer need?
How will you deliver the value proposition (including any requirements for people/skills/teams, technology, processes etc)?
How will you make money? This is sometimes looked at in term of revenue, and at other times, in terms of profit. To keep things simple, I prefer to use revenue, and then apply an average profit margin to the numbers.

How to create a strong business model

Your business model should align with your business goals. If you create it in this way, you will create reinforcing flows within your business model. What this means is that value across your business model circles around and continues to create increasing amounts of value.

Let’s use my business and business model as an example.

Business Vision: My business goal is to create value for entrepreneurs to do what they love and in turn deliver high value and benefits to people and societies (through their products/services and through any charitable/non-profit “pillars” within their businesses).

Customer: Frustrated entrepreneurs looking to build or scale their businesses.

Customer needs: Clarity on what to do and how to do it.

My Value Proposition: I run group programs that cover the 4 major areas that entrepreneurs struggle with when building or scaling a business – validating the idea, brand strategy, business strategy and customer strategy.

Delivery of my Value Proposition: Through group programs, which take place online across 6-8 weeks.

Revenue Model: Revenue is generated through my group programs.

As I deliver more value to my customers (entrepreneurs), I am able to attract more of them to join my group programs. This in turn results in more success within their individual businesses, which leads to them delivering more value to their customers and more benefits to give other organizations they support. But then, as more people become the recipients of either the value provided by my customers or by the organizations they support, more opportunities are created across societies for more people to become entrepreneurs. And that increases the pool of potential customers who are able to then join my program. It’s a cycle. You put more in and more comes around which then allows you to put even more in, and so on.

What is business model innovation?

Business Model innovation arises from challenging the different parts of your business and designing an ecosystem that gives rise to a new business model.

New business models arise out of a variety of reasons. There could be new technology available that you can capitalize on, or perhaps you absolutely must find a way to maintain your market share after new businesses start popping up in your industry or area of specialization. Perhaps you’ve uncovered some new customer needs or new potential customers to serve. All of these would require you to look at your business model and figure out new ways to profitably deliver value to solve a problem that your customer is facing.

When you take the time to do that, you will be looking at business model innovation.

How do you develop an innovative business model?

The most straightforward way I have come across to do this is to ask the question “How can I/we do [the opposite of what is happening]?”.

Think of all the innovative businesses (and services) we all know and use these days. At some point in the design of their business models, they would have had to ask themselves:

“How can customers rent movies without having to pick up a DVD/video?”
“How can customers rent a car without coming into the car rental office?”
“How can customers check into their flight without going to a check-in counter?
“How can people look at their photos without printing them?”

There are many other ways to develop an innovative business model, but this is by far the easiest.

And it’s important to remember that this same technique leads to great services which don’t have to be ground-breaking innovations, but can make a big difference for your business. For example:

“How can customers feel like they’re in our restaurant when they’re eating delivery?” has lead to high-end restaurants offering decor, candles, cutlery and more with their food delivery, particularly during COVID-19 lockdown periods, in order to replicate the restaurant ambiance.

Developing an Innovative Business Model for Your Business

So let’s go back to my definition of a business model. How can you challenge different parts of your business model in order to create business model innovation?

Ask yourself “how” at each stage.

How can you address your customer needs in a different way?
How can you address your customer’s needs at a lower price?
How can you address your customer’s needs without going through an intermediary?How can you deliver more value without charging more?
How can you deliver your product/service without acquiring the person/skill needed?How can you make money without charging your customer?

You can go as deep as you want to. It is only by asking these questions and exploring options that you’ll be able to find a solution that is different from what is currently available. And that, in turn will lead to a business model that is different from those available in your industry. And that’s what we’re all looking for, isn’t it?

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Building Your Business Vision

March 31, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

Building your business vision is the best investment you can make right now. Knowing where you want to go with your business will help shape everything else that follows.

It will provide clarity that will shape your mission, your values, your brand strategy, your business strategy, your customer strategy and customer experience, your sales and your marketing strategies, your product and service development… quite literally everything in your business.

So perhaps you’ve come across the VMV acronym before – Vision, Mission and Values. And it’s quite likely that you’ve been told how important it is to build your business vision. But the value is in whether you’ve actually done it.

Let’s take a little bit of time out today to identify the ways that your vision affects your business – positively, if done right, negatively, if not done at all (or done in a less-than-desired way).

First things first…

What is a business vision?

Your business vision is your North Star. It is the final destination you want to eventually get to. It is the reason you created your business, the deep reason – your why.

And it is this deep reason or “why” that gives you fulfillment.

Most business visions are so aspirational that they might never be achieved, and that’s ok. It’s good to be aspirational. But your vision doesn’t have to be so aspirational that you’ll forever be striving to achieve it. It can be something more achievable. But it is important that your vision be something that inspires you.

Here are some examples of how you can shape your vision statement:

To eradicate [something you work towards getting rid of, e.g. hunger]
To increase / create more [something that you work towards increasing, e.g. female CEOs or founders]
To be the best at [whatever it is you do/provide/create/produce/make available]
To bring [something] to [type of location / people]

Why is a vision so important?

Your vision is the guiding light, the destination, the ultimate goal of your business.

Without a vision, the biggest issue you’ll almost certainly face is that your efforts won’t be aligned. What does that mean? It means you’ll be doing things that move you in some direction, but not necessarily towards where you want to be. And different things will move you in different directions, so your cumulative efforts will be scattered, not stacked. Why is that an issue? Other than not getting closer to your goal, unaligned action means you’ll be busy all the time, but you won’t see the desired outcome from your effort. That in turn can – and most likely will – lead to becoming unmotivated and burnt out.

How does articulating a vision help?

It helps you identify your mission. Once you have a business vision in mind – the destination, the ultimate goal of your business – you can identify your mission. Your mission is the “how” to your vision. If your vision is to help 1,000,000 women start their own businesses, then the “how” describes what your business will be doing to achieve that vision. Perhaps it’s by having a membership-based community that supports and provides frameworks, information and guidance to women starting their businesses.
It helps frame your brand strategy… and your business strategy… and your sales strategy… and your marketing strategy… and your product or service development… and your customer strategy… you get the point. The reason why it has such an impact on everything that follows is because your vision describes your destination. And all the other strategies that you build into your business (like your brand strategy, your business strategy etc) are designed in such a way to get you to that destination, to that vision. [Little side note here: Do you see how not having a vision can result in each of these critically important strategies then veering off their own path? Without a common destination in mind, you could end up creating a brand strategy that takes you one way, and a marketing strategy that takes you another way, and a business strategy that doesn’t align with either.]
It reduces anxiety, stress, burnout, and all the other feelings associated with overworking and not seeing the results you want to see. Why? Because your actions will be aligned. Because your strategies will be aligned. Because your efforts will be created in such a way that they drive you towards your vision. And on that note…
It creates fulfillment. Because seeing how you’re making a positive impact on the thing that drives you is fulfilling. And…
Seeing your ultimate goal get positively impacted through your actions is the thing that will keep you going through the tough times. Because there will be tough times; there always are. But knowing what you’re working towards and seeing how you can and do make a difference is a big motivator. It’s the biggest motivator, in fact.

So, Sarah – what’s your vision?

I was hoping you’d ask!

There is a reason I work with entrepreneurs. I want to help build more heart-based and values-based businesses. I want to see more entrepreneurs and small businesses succeed. I want to create that movement, that ripple effect.

Also, I find that entrepreneurs and small businesses deliver their products and services with heart, with a lot of care, with genuine appreciation for their customers. I want to create more of that.

And lastly, I want to give back and help others give back to non-profit businesses. And I find that a lot of entrepreneurs and small businesses do that. And they do it, again, from the heart.

So, having introduced my background thoughts, this is my vision:

My vision is to create a world where people are successful doing the things they love, delivering from their hearts and making the world a better place.

And now it’s your turn

If you don’t already have a vision, create one. Dig deep. Find out why you do the thing you do in your business.

And ask yourself: what impact do I want to have on the world?

The Secrets to Scaling Your Business

March 17, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

When you first start building your business, you might find it manageable to do a lot of the work yourself and to save costs by not purchasing software or platforms which you’d only use for specific things a few times a month – if that. And that is totally fine, and probably the smart thing to do – until you have your product or service nailed down, and the customer experience mapped out. Then it’s time to scale your business.

And to scale, you need to automate.

I’m going to talk through the absolute necessities for automating portions of your business in this article.

These are things that will allow you to buy back your time, giving you that ability to take a step back from the operational side of your business and focus on your next big step.

And as Founder or CEO, that is exactly where you should be spending a good chunk of your time.

So here are the top 5 places where you should be automating your business operations.

Scaling Your Business – Top 5 Tips

You’ll notice that the first three are all email sequences. Email is the easiest and most effective way to communicate your brand, your offer and your overall business to your potential customers. If there is ONE thing you choose to automate, let it be this.

Scaling Your Business – Tip #1: An Automated Opt-in Sequence

So the first thing you want to do is to create an automated email opt-in sequence.

An opt-in sequence is based around your opt-in item, or your lead magnet. A lead magnet is essentially a free item of value given to someone in exchange for their email address. For product-based businesses, these tend to be discounts. For service-based businesses, these tend to be e-books, guidebooks, access to a course or a webinar. And for software businesses, these are typically free trial periods.

So once you have your opt-in, you will definitely want to automate fulfilling the customer’s request. The last thing you want to be doing is manually sending out the lead magnet or discount code.

Ok, so this first tip is easy, right? Hopefully you already do that, if you have a lead magnet. And if you don’t have a lead magnet, you should 100% get one in place. More on that another day.

Scaling Your Business – Tip #2: An Automated Email Welcome Sequence

The second thing you want to do is put together an automated email welcome sequence. This is typically a sequence of 3 to 5 emails that any new subscriber would receive.

Personally, I deploy 3 emails, 24 hours apart. You might choose to do 5 emails, 48 hours apart. Some businesses do welcome sequences that are weeks and months long. Choose what works for you.

You should use your welcome sequence to literally welcome people into your business. Showcase your personality, your brand, your values, your products and services. Let them get to know you and your business or brand.

And remember, done is better than perfect. Get 3 emails in a sequence, move on to automate the next thing, and then come back to this and add to it later, if you’d like to make it a longer sequence or want to make changes to the emails.

Scaling Your Business – Tip #3: An Automated Email Sales Sequence

The third thing you want to do is put together an automated email sales sequence.

This sequence can be updated and swapped out every time you have a new product or service you’d like to push, or you can have a general one, particularly if you run a product-based business.

The sequence should consist of approximately 3 emails, and should be triggered at the end of your welcome sequence, ideally with a gap of a few days or even a week or two.

In this sequence, you’ll showcase your absolute best products and services, throw in some testimonials if you can, and really demonstrate the value of your offering. Make sure you provide quick links back to your website for easy purchase or more information.

The aim here is that after receiving your valuable lead magnet, then getting to know you, your potential customer might be ready to make a purchase, and you don’t want to miss that opportunity.

If they don’t purchase, don’t despair! Perhaps they need to get to know you a bit more, particularly if your business sells high value products or services, or items that are not purchased frequently.

Top tip: Monitor how many emails it usually takes (between the opt-in, welcome sequence, sales sequence and newsletters) before potential customers are – on average – ready to buy from you. Then try to have that number of interactions with your potential customers in your welcome sequence and sales sequence (i.e. add more emails to the sequences so you can automate those interactions).

Scaling Your Business – Tip #4: Automating Admin Work

We’re more than halfway there!

The fourth area you’ll need to automate is not an email sequence. In this tip, you’re going to start automating portions of your business that require you to spend a lot of time going back and forth with clients/customers or potential clients/customers. If you’re a service business, getting a calendar booking app on your website is a great way to avoid the 3-4 email exchange that takes place when setting up a discovery call with a potential client. Same thing goes for coaches and other “meeting” based businesses. I personally use Paperbell to schedule my coaching sessions and my workshops. I absolutely love it and highly recommend it for coaching and consulting businesses.

Scaling Your Business – Tip #5: Automating Lead Generation

Lastly, but very importantly, you should deeply consider using paid social to drive leads to your social media pages. The great thing about doing this is that it continues to run in the background, and over time, you’ll know how much revenue you can expect to make based on the amount you spend on paid social.

For example, once you’ve tested this a few times, you’ll figure out your conversion rate on your lead magnet page, and then your sales page. So when new potential customers are brought into your ecosystem through paid social ads, you’ll know what percentage of them will opt into your lead magnet, and after that, what percentage of those will move forward with a purchase at the end of your welcome and sales sequences.

You can even set up your lead magnet to have its own sales sequence for an item that is more closely related to the lead magnet.

The idea here is that once you know how well you can convert potential customers into paying customers, the only thing that you need is more customers, and paid social is a great way to get them.

Scaling Your Business: A Summary

In conclusion, the only way to scale your business is to start looking at what you can automate within it. Manual processes and interactions will always be a bottleneck to scaling, so those are areas you want to focus on first.

Scaling your business is an incredible way to buy back your time. Don’t be afraid to invest in it, as you’ll be able to spend more time building and growing your business strategically with the time you’ll have bought back!

As always, good luck, I believe you can do this, and I’m always around if there’s anything you’d like some help with.

If you found this helpful, share it!

Using Design Thinking To Up-Level Your Business

February 24, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

Design Thinking, although not new, is something that many people vaguely understand and few practice. The good news, however, is that it’s fairly easy to learn Design Thinking principles, tools and framework and use them to up-level your business.

If you are not familiar with Design Thinking, and are wondering what the connection is between it and helping entrepreneurs run a successful business, read on, and be prepared to take notes!

Entrepreneurs can use Design Thinking to redesign existing products and services, design new products and services, develop strategy, improve their customer experience and more. There are so many possibilities, your imagination really is the limit here.

What is Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a creative way to solve problems. It’s main differentiators are that it puts the customer at the heart of the problem statement (the question to be solved) and at the heart of the solution. It is truly customer centric and based on real human needs. There is a process to follow, making it easy for non-creative people to tap into their creativity. And there are a number of tools to choose from, based on your needs, your team and your objective.

Design Thinking is based on 6 stages (sometimes 7), that are explained in chronological order, although in practice you may find yourself going back and forth a few times before moving forward, and that’s totally acceptable. The 6 stages are Empathize (or Discover), Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Sometimes, a 7th stage, Implement, is added at the end.

How Can You Use Design Thinking, as an Entrepreneur?

As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably heard or read advice about understanding your customer, or developing an Ideal Customer Avatar. In fact, you’re very likely tired of hearing about it, and believe you understand your customers extremely well.

But I’d like to push your thinking with a couple of my favorite examples.

Using Design Thinking to Understand Customer Needs – Example #1

In an HBR article (magazine article, September – October 2018) “Why Design Thinking Works”, an example was referenced in which a UK Charity helping adults with autism and Asperger’s syndrome sent a design team member to the home of a non-verbal adult with autism. She observed him picking the leather off his sofa and rubbing indents into his walls. By the end of the first day, the member defined her problem to be solved as “how to prevent such destructiveness.”

On the second day of observation, however, she chose to put herself in his shoes. She joined him in his activities of picking the leather off the sofa, and then later pressed her ear against the wall while scratching it, as he did.

Her findings? The activities were fun, soothing and relaxing. She realized he was doing these things to create pleasure in his life, not to intentionally destroy anything.

What did that change? Well, instead of working on finding solutions to stop him from “destroying” furniture, which was the initial intention, i.e. “keeping residents safe”, she worked on creating solutions to make him, and others with similar disabilities, live fuller and more pleasurable lives by providing them with living spaces, gardens and activities to foster that.

Using Design Thinking to Understand Customer Needs – Example #2

Another great example is the “Embrace Incubator”. A team at Standford’s d.School were tasked to design a low cost incubator to combat the issue of high infant death rates in low to middle income countries.

At first, the issue appeared to be that families with infants requiring incubators were unable to afford it, and so the objective was to design an extremely low cost incubator that low-income families would be able to afford.

In order to gather information – and be human-centered – a member of the team traveled to Nepal to observe and understand the needs of their target customers.

His findings? What he uncovered was that families were actually unable to even reach the hospitals and incubators because they lived in rural areas far away from the hospitals.

What did that change? Well, instead of moving forward with creating an inexpensive incubator, the team directed their focus on what their customers really needed – a product to keep their babies safe and warm when they don’t have the means to get to a hospital. You see, the problem was not that they could not afford the incubator. It was that they could not get to the incubator.

And so, the team created the Embrace Incubator, a sleeping bag with a paraffin-based pouch that would stay warm for up to 4 hours once heated up.

What’s the Design Thinking lesson for entrepreneurs, you ask?

I’m glad you asked! The lesson here is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Really put yourself in their shoes. Otherwise, you might wind up creating “solutions” that don’t really solve their problems.

And the thing is, if you want to have a wildly successful business, you’re going to want to create solutions that really solve your customers’ problems.

So instead of assuming that you understand your customers, take the time to talk to them, to spend some time with them, to understand the motives behind their needs, their actions and their words. The more you do this, the more you’ll be able to create products and services that they need and want. And that will result in more sales – always a good thing for business.

Apply Design Thinking to Your Business

You might be thinking this won’t work for your business, but let’s explore a few questions that might change your mind.

As you work through these questions, the aim is to gather information to understand your customer.

Remember, the more you understand their needs and motives, the better equipped you’ll be to create a product or service they need.

Why is your customer coming to your business? What is the reason they are interested in your product or service?
What causes your customer to need your product or service?
What happens in and around your customer’s life for them to want to purchase your product or service? Think about the before and after – things that happen in their lives on either end of needing your product or service.
When your customer is interacting with your product or service, how do you demonstrate to them that you understand their pain points?
What additional information or solutions (other than your main product or service) do you offer your customer to demonstrate that you are able to solve their problem?

Action: To answer the questions above, talk to and shadow customers (with their permission, of course). Find out as much as you can about their needs, wants and motives.

And as always, if you’ve found this article useful, share it with someone who’ll benefit from it as well!